4 Minutes Before

Sabo's kick sends Burgess crashing down, and the watching crowd recognizes the Revolutionary Army's chief of staff. Sabo declares Luffy to be his own brother, then asks what quarrel Burgess has with him. The Blackbeard pirate, puzzled, remembers Ace once saying the very same thing, and Sabo explains that all three of them were sworn brothers. Bringing up the duel at Banaro Island, he says he will not hold the crew accountable for Ace's death, but warns Burgess that he intends to protect Luffy all the same. Burgess rushes him anyway, and in response Sabo sets his finger alight, revealing himself as the second Lucy who claimed the Mera Mera no Mi back in the Corrida Colosseum.

While Gatz hauls Luffy off, Sabo squares up against Burgess, turning to flame to slip past a punch that levels the building behind him and answering with a blazing dragon-king claw that hurls the Blackbeard pirate through several structures before leaping after him. Elsewhere, Doflamingo turns his awakened Devil Fruit loose on the gladiators chasing him, slaughtering many and bellowing for Luffy to come out so he can be made to feel regret. The citizens running from the cage spill onto the central street, only to recoil in shock at finding it turned into a battlefield by Doflamingo's rampage. Meanwhile, Zoro sheathes his blades in Armament Haki before slamming them against the cage; when Kin'emon and Kanjuro call him reckless for thinking it can be pushed back, he challenges them to prove it cannot and asks for their help.

Outside the SMILE Factory, Franky has the dwarves heave against the indestructible structure to drag on the cage, while Robin and Viola compare notes about what Zoro is attempting. Up where the New King's Plateau stands, Donquixote Pirates open fire on the citizens to carry out Doflamingo's wish that all of them perish, only to be cut down by the Colosseum fighters whom Mansherry restored with her healing fruit. Kyros tells everyone to scramble up the plateau as Sai calls for any who still have the will to fight. With his patience gone, Doflamingo quickens the Birdcage, drawing cries of anguish from Riku and the people; the central street is set to be wiped out in three minutes, yet Luffy still needs four to recharge his Haki.